O, Valenciaaaaaaaaaaa. MUST SEE PICTURES!

(Sat. Sept. 19th- Mon. Sept. 21st)

I think only Matt probably knows what that title means.

Right when we got to Valencia, three weekends ago, this is what we saw. Lots of white buildings, and bull fighting ring, next to our train station. The city was quite pretty. 700,000 or so people.

This placa was very close to our hostel. A church here, lots of people, some restaurants, and water fountain. Really nice European place to chill and relax.

This is how they make their little roads in Valencia. Sidewalks on both sides. After laying down the bricks they just dump mortar everywhere and push broom it across all the joints.

More white architecture, domes and such. Very Moorish. There is a lot more Muslim influence the farther south you get- Spain has been warred over between Catholics/Spaniards and Muslims/Moors/invaders from Africa for centuries.

So on our map, we discovered this linear park, we called it. It was like a river snaking through the whole city. And so the next morning, we went to check it out and follow it all the way towards the waterfront, where the Calatrava museum campus was (all the crazy architecture we came to see). So we got to the park, and found out it actually WAS a river!! You can see in the background, the wall, that's probably 30 feet high- I'm standing in the park, below the level of the city, in the old riverbed. Lots of green everywhere. Really awesome.

And then we discovered soccer fields! I really wanted to play.

And a cool looking bridge. You can see from us walking under, how far down we are in the old river!

We discovered an amazing jungle gym thing. Of ropes. And we climbed and climbed.

It had a...thing, down in the middle between the three pyramids.

I guess I kinda look like Peter Pan up here.

Then we found all these water fountains. I looked at the guys and said, heyyyyy, do you think, is this jumpable?

The answer was yes.

And yes.

and yes

and yes.

I, wearing flip flops, decided to do my own form of jumping over the water fountain channels...

Then we found climbing-wall knobs hooked under a bridge, where you could hang over the water. Random.

Aaaaaaaand then we found GULLIVER. Tied down with ropes. Big enough to climb on. Much of his body and clothes made into slides. Ridiculous!!

Gulliver, why with the middle finger?

Me walking on his arm....

A scale model (about the size of a real person,) showing the whole thing.